general_fan_fictionfandomcom-20200214-history
Life After Death/Issue 20
"Just passing through," Eric told the three men as they lowered their weapons. "Decided to spend the night. Why?" "Oh, nothing," Ike replied with a chuckle. "It's just, usually the folks I come across have a pretty good setup." "Other folks?" Brie asked. "How many groups have you run into?" "Not that many, just a few here and there. Most are friendly, but some..." Ike looked back at Ryan, who lowered his head. "Not so much." "Which are you?" Dolph asked coldly. "Depends. Which are you?" "Depends," Eric replied. "That's a smart way of living, don't be too friendly to people you don't know. I promise, we don't mean any harm as long as you don't." "Well, then we don't." "Good." "So," Bart said as he walked up beside Ike. "What has you guys staying in this dump?" "We don't have a permanent camp." "Is that by choice, or...?" "No...about a month back, we...got attacked. Lost some good people. Never been the same since then." "Well, we're in the same boat as you, then," Ike said. "A couple weeks ago, bandits attacked our camp. Killed some of ours, but we killed some of theirs. Ryan here...he lost his girlfriend. And another good man died, too." "Well, I'm sorry for your loss." "You know...we're set up in a pretty secure spot not too far from here. You all seem like reasonable folks, so if you'd like, we could take you there; give you a nice meal and somewhere, uh, nicer to sleep." The group all exchanged eager looks, except for Dolph, who remained skeptical of these newcomers. "Why are you so accepting?" he asked the men. "I mean, you hardly know us; you've spent two minutes talking and you're already inviting us to join you. That just doesn't add up." "You people don't look very dangerous, plus, you've been on the road for a long time, so it seems. If I were in your position, I know I'd like somewhere nice to spend the night. Trust me, we don't bite...except maybe Ryan, but he don't bite hard. If we wanted you dead, we wouldn't have just saved your asses a couple minutes ago." Eric looked back at the group, and could tell what most of them were thinking. "Alright...we'll take you up on your offer," he said. "Ike, how about we talk for a sec?" Ryan asked. "Uh, just excuse us for a second," Ike said as he, Ryan, and Bart walked into the forest. "What?" "Why the fuck are you letting these people in our camp? We don't know them." "They're in a tough situation, figured I'd lend them a hand. I never said they had to join us, I just said we'd take them there. We could send them packing tomorrow if you're so worried." "We shouldn't even be taking them at all. Man, Rachel will flip shit when she finds out you're doing this crap behind her back." "I'm sure Rachel won't mind if it's just for the night. She's an understanding person." "You're just saying that because you two are banging." "Ryan," Bart started to say. "Come on, man. Think about if you were them, having to eat rice, sleep in a place like this, nearly getting killed by the lurkers." "What about your son, Ike? You're gonna endanger his life?" "I'm his father, I do what's best for him," Ike replied more seriously than he had been before. "You really think I'd let them have their weapons while they're with us?" "They outnumber us, man. They could easily get their weapons back if they wanted." "We outmatch them. They barely made a dent in that horde, they're weak. If they tried to start something, we could take care of it." "Alright, fine. But if Rachel get's pissed, I ain't gonna sleep out in the cold with you two." ---- "Are we seriously going to just join these people?" Dolph asked the group while the three men talked in the forest. "Some strangers just walk up, invite us to their camp, and you don't find that the least bit suspicious?" "I do," Eric admitted. "But it's the best we have." "I have to agree with Eric," Gregory said. "That Ike man brought up a good point, if we weren't going to be treated with hospitality, then they wouldn't have saved us from the horde." "I think we should give it a shot," Brie added. "At least for one night." "I agree," Morgan said. "Look, Dolph," Andre started to say. "I admit, they seems...strange, but what other choice do we have? Continue wandering from torn up camp to camp like we're rotters?" "I'd rather that than risk getting ourselves killed," Dolph responded. "Look, we'll stay there for the night, and if there's anything suspicious going on, we leave in the morning," Eric said. "Deal?" "Fine. But if they're dangerous, I swear to god I'll-" "So, are you ready to come along?" Ike asked as the trio walked up, cutting off Dolph. Eric looked at the rest of the group to see if there were any objections. "I think so, just give us a minute to grab our stuff," he said, and the group went to gather their things. When they had their things ready, they returned to the firepit. "Oh, I'm going to need to take your weapons," Ike said. "Fuck that," Dolph said, holding his crowbar tightly. Ike placed his left hand on his sword, which he had sheathed. "Please, it's for our safety. We don't want you pulled out your crowbar and bashing our face in." Dolph and Eric exchanged looks, and hesitantly handed their weapons to Ike, followed by the rest of the group. ---- The group trudged through the forest as Ike led them through it. Bart and Ryan stayed near the back to make sure they didn't try to overtake them from behind. There was an awkward silence between the groups that lasted the whole walk. It took them about half an hour of walking, but they eventually emerged through the forest into a field. After another ten minutes, they climbed up a hill, and looked down. "Home, sweet home," Bart said as they started walking down the other side of the hill. There was an RV and four small tents circling a camp fire near a playground, surrounded by a barbed wire fence. Off in the distance behind some trees and a dark red, picket fence, were about a dozen small houses. When they neared the fence, Ike pulled off two clamps from the fence, and opened up a large hole in it. He walked through, and held it open for the rest of the group. Once they were through, he tightly closed it up again. A young boy with extremely short, blond hair and a blue and white shirt came running from the camp and leaped into Ike's arms. "I missed you, dad," he said with a smile. "I missed you too, Owen," Ike said, returning the smile. "How's Spike doing?" "Good, he's hungry, though." "Did you forget to feed him this morning?" Ike asked playfully. Owen stared at him with a blank face for a moment. "Maybe..." Ike chuckled. "Come on, we can feed him some crickets together." Ike put his arm on Owen's shoulders as the two started walking. The rest of the group followed as a woman walked over. She was black with light skin with long, curly, dark brown hair that extended out of a tan fedora. She wore a brown sweater over a tan shirt and was holding a pistol in her right hand. "Isaac, who are these people?" she asked. "Relax, Rachel," Bart said. "They're some hungry people we found living in some dump of a campsite." "And you thought it would be a good idea to bring them here? Without asking me?" "Here we go..." Ryan said quietly to himself, which managed to get a slight chuckle out of Dolph. "Rachel, come on," Ike said. "They're hungry, tired, and worn out. I thought I'd be nice and offer them a place to sleep and some food to eat for the night. Is that too bad?" "You know what?" she responded. "We'll talk about this later." Rachel walked off as two more people came up from behind them. One was a large, slightly overweight man with short, black hair, a short boxed beard, and an orange and gray ski jacket. He walked up to Bart and the two hugged. "So, this is what took you so long," the man said. "Hello there, I'm Matt." "And I'm Penny," the other person said as she walked up beside Matt. She was a young, hispanic woman with a black ponytail and pale green jacket over a yellow shirt. "Nice to meet you two," Emily said with a smile. "So, uh, Ike," Bart said. "We gonna show them around or what?" "There's not much to show," he replied. "Just take them to the fire, I need to go talk with Rachel. Owen, stay here, and stick close to Bart." "What about Spike?" Owen asked with a frown. "We'll feed him later, daddy just has to talk with Rachel quickly. I'll only be a couple minutes. That sound fair?" "I guess..." "Good, have fun, and be nice to the new people." Owen looked up at Devon and stepped closer to Bart and Matt. "He don't bite, Owen," Bart said. "Are you sure?" "I don't," Devon replied. "I'm sure." ---- Ike walked inside the cluttered RV and found Rachel sitting on the bed with a cup of water. "Hey, Rach?" Ike said. "I hate when you do this," she said. "You should have asked me first." "And what, leave them there while I took a forty five minute walk here just to ask you, and then take forty five to get back?" "That's not the point." "I don't see why you're upset. Me, Bart, and Ryan talked to them, they seemed like genuine people. They had been having a hard time, so I thought I'd do them something nice." "What if they plan to kill us? What if-" "We took their weapons so that wouldn't happen." "I'm just...not comfortable with letting new people in. It's only been two weeks since..." "I know. Your brother was a good man. We were close, it hurt me too." "I don't want the same thing to happen again. I don't want to lose you, too." Ike leaned in and kissed Rachel on the cheeks. It lasted for a good ten seconds before Ike pulled away. "You won't, I promise." "What about Owen?" "I trust Ryan and Bart to protect him when I'm not around." "You really trust these people?" "Not completely, but I'm willing to give them a chance." "Then I guess I am, too." "Thank you. Just so we're clear...you're not going to make me sleep outside, right?" "What? Where did you get that idea?" Rachel asked with a confused look. Ike laughed. "Just something Ryan said. Anyway, I should go help Owen feed Spike. I'll see you in a bit." Ike walked out the door and Rachel sighed. She looked out the window of the RV and watched Eric's group walk into the camp and sit down by the fire. "I hope you know what you're doing, Ike." Credits * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Deaths *None Trivia *First appearance of . *First appearance of . *First appearance of . *First appearance of .